So, why does the method of loci work so well? After all, brain-training games like the ones marketed by Lumosity don’t actually make you smarter (which is why Lumosity had to pay $2 million to settle charges of deceptive advertising). And this latest study bears that out — the group playing the short-term memory brain-training game didn’t improve significantly. But the group using the method of loci did.

Weird as it might sound, there are competitive rememberers out there who can memorize a deck of cards in seconds or dozens of words in minutes. So, naturally, someone decided to study them. March 16, 2017 at 10:20PM